Wiping laptop device of all information

[Captive of Mind]

I want to protect this site so I was wondering if anyone knows the best way to "WIPE" my laptop clean of all information. I don't just mean factory reset. Apparently, factory reset isn't the most extensive way to erase a laptops memory and files. I've been trying to look it up and seen several people mention that you have to "wipe" the device. Does anyone know the best way to do this?

 

[alexit]

You need to delete all stored memory cache in your browsers. But remember that the most detailed info of your web activity isn't stored on your device. It's stored in your web accounts, especially if you use free email like gmail and social media services. You have to delete the data archives in those accounts.

 

[miguel6565]

My Disk Wiper | Wipe and delete hard disk drive | My Portable Software

Wipe and delete hard disk drive

www.myportablesoftware.com

 

[Captive of Mind]

My Disk Wiper | Wipe and delete hard disk drive | My Portable Software

Wipe and delete hard disk drive

www.myportablesoftware.com

Thank you for the reply! Are you sure this is a good option? How do you know this site is reliable?

You need to delete all stored memory cache in your browsers. But remember that the most detailed info of your web activity isn't stored on your device. It's stored in your web accounts, especially if you use free email like gmail and social media services. You have to delete the data archives in those accounts.

I will make sure to delete my google account but I also want to wipe my device instead of just deleting the history.

 

[alexit]

In the strictest sense information on a computer never fully gets deleted. A top forensics computer specialist can recover stuff. It all depends how far you want to go. On one end is just resetting your computer on the other is doing everything including zapping your computer chips. In the middle is deleting data stored in online accounts, clearing cache of all browsers on all devices and resetting to factory settings all devices.

 

[Soulless Angel]

just smash the fucker up! make sure the hard drive is totally like in a billion peices?

 

[Meaninglesslife50]

Trying encrypting your hard drive rather than erasing it.You can never be sure if you will ever you need your data.And it will be unaccessible without your password.Something like AES-256 is strong enough and breaking it is not feasible with current technology. You can use bitlocker on windows or gpg on gnu/linux.About wiping ,with a simple wipe data can still be required you should use a more rigorous algorithm you can learn about them here:

7 Effective Algorithms to Remove Files and Folders Permanently

Looking for standard algorithms to wipe/erase the confidential files & folders? Read this article to know ways to erase using us dod, peter gutman

www.stellarinfo.com

 

[Captive of Mind]

In the strictest sense information on a computer never fully gets deleted. A top forensics computer specialist can recover stuff. It all depends how far you want to go. On one end is just resetting your computer on the other is doing everything including zapping your computer chips. In the middle is deleting data stored in online accounts, clearing cache of all browsers on all devices and resetting to factory settings all devices.

What about that site that miguel just posted that will wipe my laptop? Is that better than factory reset or the same?
Shit this is a bit overwhelming, I almost don't even care enough to go through the trouble. I might just do a factory reset and hope they can't access anything further.

 

[alexit]

What about that site that miguel just posted that will wipe my laptop? Is that better than factory reset or the same?

I'm suspicious of services because they themselves keep records of things. But I'm also a computer engineer so I can do just about anything those services can do. What are your concerns and perhaps solution that's not overkill can be put forward?

 

[Captive of Mind]

I'm suspicious of services because they themselves keep records of things. But I'm also a computer engineer so I can do just about anything those services can do. What are your concerns and perhaps solution that's not overkill can be put forward?

I just want to protect this site and make it so that my browser history can't be retrieved. I'm going to disable my account here before I ctb which I think will help some too.

 

[grungeCat]

The simplest method:
Start your computer with a Windows boot disk, select command prompt and type :

diskpart clean all

The whole process of wiping your hard drive will take a long time (about few hours or more).

 

[alexit]

i don't think you need to wipe your hard drive for that. I do think you need to
* Go to your search engine profile and delete all online stored web activity. For Google it's at myactivity.google.com
* Clear all cookies, history, cache from all your browsers
* (And for good measure) delete the browsers themselves.

You can if you want after that reset computer(s) to factory setting. Any web temp files in your computer folders will be sufficiently removed.

 

[Captive of Mind]

The simplest method:
Start your computer with a Windows boot disk, select command prompt and type :

diskpart clean all

The whole process of wiping your hard drive will take a long time (about few hours or more).

My laptop has no disk drive and can't even use an external disk drive

 

[Meaninglesslife50]

My laptop has no disk drive and can't even use an external disk drive

Do you use windows?

 

[Captive of Mind]

Do you use windows?

Yes

 

[Checkmate3]

But does laptop wiping really protects this site? I'm pretty sure that every agency in every country is already familiar with this web by now. I'll just log out of all the social networks I have (I don't have too many), and then use CCleaner to delete the history and that is it, good enough.

 

[Captive of Mind]

i don't think you need to wipe your hard drive for that. I do think you need to
* Go to your search engine profile and delete all online stored web activity. For Google it's at myactivity.google.com
* Clear all cookies, history, cache from all your browsers
* (And for good measure) delete the browsers themselves.

You can if you want after that reset computer(s) to factory setting. Any web temp files in your computer folders will be sufficiently removed.

Honestly, this seems like the easiest thing to do so I might do it becuase I'm overwhelmed by trying to figure this. Plus I will do a factory reset

But does laptop wiping really protects this site? I'm pretty sure that every agency in every country is already familiar with this web by now. I'll just log out of all the social networks I have (I don't have too many), and then use CCleaner to delete the history and that is it, good enough.

That is a good suggestion to use ccleaner. I used that a long time ago and forgot about it. And you make a good point about them already knowing about this site. I think it's just that the more suicide cases they stack up and link to the site, the worse off it is. Also, I don't really want them being able to see all of the things I've posted on here. Do you think they will still be able to see that stuff if I delete my account here?

 

[Meaninglesslife50]

Yes

If you are logged into google it saves your browser history so you have to wipe that first.

How to delete yourself from internet search results and hide your identity online

Here is a step-by-step guide to reducing your digital footprint online, whether you want to lock down data or vanish entirely.

www.zdnet.com

Then if you search on the internet for thorough cleaning of hard drive there are articles which explain things way better than I do.and hard disks or SSDs are do not differ in such methods.

 

[Captive of Mind]

If you are logged into google it saves your browser history so you have to wipe that first.

How to delete yourself from internet search results and hide your identity online

Here is a step-by-step guide to reducing your digital footprint online, whether you want to lock down data or vanish entirely.

www.zdnet.com

Then if you search on the internet for thorough cleaning of hard drive there are articles which explain things way better than I do.and hard disks or SSDs are do not differ in such methods.

Jeeze, everyone here is being so helpful and giving really good information. I feel bad though because it's like my brain is shutting down and is being short circuited. There are so many options I don't know which one to do.

Thank you so much to everyone who is being so kind and generous! If there is a mod here, maybe they can pin this thread somewhere so that other people can have easy access to this information.

 

[Checkmate3]

Honestly, this seems like the easiest thing to do so I might do it becuase I'm overwhelmed by trying to figure this. Plus I will do a factory reset

That is a good suggestion to use ccleaner. I used that a long time ago and forgot about it. And you make a good point about them already knowing about this site. I think it's just that the more suicide cases they stack up and link to the site, the worse off it is. Also, I don't really want them being able to see all of the things I've posted on here. Do you think they will still be able to see that stuff if I delete my account here?

I don't think they'll be able to link your account to you even if you'll just simply log out and clear cookies. Some people didn't log out and that was the problem in the past, from what I've read.

 

[Meaninglesslife50]

I don't think they'll be able to link your account to you even if you'll just simply log out and clear cookies. Some people didn't log out and that was the problem in the past, from what I've read.

Sadly depending on where you live and if you used any VPN or proxy they can ask your Internet service provider to give them your info on which website you visited in a few month or so.

 

[Captive of Mind]

Sadly depending on where you live and if you used any VPN or proxy they can ask your Internet service provider to give them your info on which website you visited in a few month or so.

Yes, but they won't be able to see exactly what was done on the site.

 

[alexit]

Technically, a lot is possible. Little is more likely.

 

[Meaninglesslife50]

Yes, but they won't be able to see exactly what was done on the site.

They can access the URLs so they can see which threads you visited.

 

[Checkmate3]

Sadly depending on where you live and if you used any VPN or proxy they can ask your Internet service provider to give them your info on which website you visited in a few month or so.

How would they know who my Internet Service Provider is? I'm just using my neighbor's free WiFi lol.

 

[Captive of Mind]

Technically, a lot is possible. Little is more likely.

True, I mean how much effort are they really going to put into uncovering my computer data? It's not like they will have to figure out what happened. Idk why they would want to go through the trouble of tracking down deleted computer history.

 

[alexit]

Unless you have a strong reason to think they will open a computer forensic investigation, don't overthink this.

 

[Captive of Mind]

They can access the URLs so they can see which threads you visited.

Well that just sucks. Fuck it, I guess it doesn't really matter then

 

[Soulless Angel]

They can access the URLs so they can see which threads you visited.

not if you use duck duck go... No history kept

 

[Captive of Mind]

Unless you have a strong reason to think they will open a computer forensic investigation, don't overthink this.

That is so true. All they are going to find is youtube, pornhub, and ss. Lol